IT’S A REAL STEEL DEAL
£50m boost to protect hundreds of jobs
HUNDREDS of jobs have been saved in a boost for the Mirror’s Save Our Steel campaign.
Liberty Steel announced it was pumping £50million into its plant at Rotherham, South Yorks, which will protect most of the 1,000 posts there.
It comes amid a restructure of GFG Alliance, Liberty’s owner, which was left in trouble when key lender Greensill Capital collapsed in March.
The Rotherham site can now reopen. It was closed in the spring.
Jeffrey Kabel, the company’s chief transformation officer, said: “The injection of £50m of shareholder funds into Liberty Steel UK is an important step in our restructuring.”
UK Steel director-general Gareth Stace added: “This is excellent news on a Monday morning for the whole of the sector and for the workers, their families, those communities. Get those furnaces fired up.”
Jobs at Liberty’s plants have been hanging in the balance for months.
The Mirror reported in May that the firm was seeking a buyer for its aerospace and steel business in Stocksbridge, South Yorks.
It had also started a formal sale process for Coventry’s Liberty Pressing Solutions, and Liberty Aluminium Technologies, with sites in Essex and Kidderminster, Worcs.
The company, part of the Gupta Family Group Alliance, also said it would try to sell its manufacturing facilities in Brinsworth, South Yorks, and in West Bromwich, West Mids.
But the firm said at the time that by trying to sell those plants, it hoped to bolster its new greener operation at Rotherham.
South Yorks MP John Healey said of yesterday’s announcement: “This is a breakthrough after months while Liberty workers have been left in limbo.
“Liberty is at the heart of steelmaking in Rotherham and we’ve been holding our breath for the working capital to restart production. But £50m won’t be enough for long, so full long-term refinancing for Liberty UK now needs to follow.”
Roy Rickhuss, general secretary of steelworkers’ union Community, said: “This news is well overdue, but it’s an important step in the right direction.
“Huge challenges remain but the workforce is ready to get back to making the best steel money can buy, and the £50m injection will enable us to restart steelmaking.”
Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng warned in April that thousands of Liberty jobs were in danger.
But he defended rejecting a plea for a £170m Government rescue package, saying the cash could have been sent offshore to non-UK firms.
The Mirror has been campaigning to Save Our Steel since 2015 when the industry was hit by plant
closures and redundancies.